https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jq2bvq8m2

Description of the data and file structure

A set of photographs documenting the osteology of extant trionychid turtles (Trionychidae) in natural history collections

Walter G. Joyce1, Julien Claude2, 3, Ilya Dziomber4, Léa C. Girard1, Jason J. Head5, Tyler R. Lyson6, Márton Rabi7, Juliana Sterli8, 9

1 Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

3 Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution UM/CNRS/IRD/EPHE, Montpellier, France

4 Institute of Plant Sciences & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

5 Department of Zoology and University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

6 Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado, USA

7 Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

8 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)

9 Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF), Trelew, Chubut, Argentina

Abstract

A thorough understanding of the osteological evolution of trionychid turtles has long been hampered by poor access to comparative skeletal collections as specimens are scattered across the globe. To partially alleviate this situation, we here present a collection of photographs of 608 trionychid specimens representing most currently accepted species. This collection is not the result of a coordinated effort. Instead, pictures were taken over the course of the last four decades using varying equipment and with different goals in mind. The photographs of each specimen are contained in a single folder, which is labelled using updated taxonomic attributions and collections numbers. Institutional acronyms are listed below. Most folders contain an image of the museum label. The vast majority of pictures are associated with a metric scale, but local coins were used when no scale was available. The relevant coins and their sizes are listed below as well.

All specimens are assigned to one of the following currently recognized taxa: Amyda cartilaginea, Amyda ornata, Apalone ferox, Apalone mutica, Apalone spinifera, Chitra chitra, Chitra indica, Chitra vandijki, Cyclanorbis elegans, Cyclanorbis senegalensis, Cycloderma aubryi, Cycloderma frenatum, Dogania subplana, Lissemys ceylonensis, Lissemys punctata, Lissemys scutata, Nilssonia formosa, Nilssonia gangetica, Nilssonia hurum, Nilssonia leithii, Nilssonia nigricans, Palea steindachneri, Pelochelys bibroni, Pelochelys cantorii, Pelodiscus sp., Rafetus euphraticus, Rafetus swinhoei, and Trionyx triunguis.

Institutional Abbreviations

AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA

CUMZ, Chulalongkorn University Museum of Natural History, Bangkok, Thailand

EOWL, EO Wilson Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique

FMNH, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA

IVPP, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China

KU, University of Kansas Natural History Museum, Lawrence, Kansas, USA

MCZ, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

MNHN, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France

MTD, Museum für Tierkunde Dresden, Dresden, Germany

NHMB, Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Basel, Switzerland

NHMUK, Natural History Museum, London, UK

NMB, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Berlin, Germany

NMW, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria

OMNH, Sam Noble Museum, Norman, Oklahoma, USA

PCHP, Peter C. H. Pritchard Collection at the Turtle Conservancy, Ojai, California, USA

RH, Ren Hirayama Collection at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada

SMF, Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt, Germany

TMM, Texas Memorial Museum, Austin, Texas, USA

UCMP, University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, California, USA

UCMVZ, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, USA

UMMZ, Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

USNM, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA

YPM, Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

ZMC, Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

ZSI, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India

Coins as Scales

NHMB, 2 franc coin, Switzerland, 27.4 mm; 5 franc coin, Switzerland, 31.45 mm

NHMUK, 1 pound coin, UK, round edition, 23.43mm; 2 pound coin, UK, 28.4 mm

OMNH, 25 cent coin, USA, 24.26 mm

SMF, 1 Euro coin, Euro-Zone, 23.25mm

TMM, 25 cent coin, USA, 24.26 mm

ZSI, 5 rupee coin, India, 23.0 mm

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank the following list of people for providing us with access to specimens under their care: AMNH (David Kazirian), CUMZ (Wichase Khonsue, Kumhtorn Thirakhupt), FMNH (Alan Resetar), IVPP (Li Lu), KU (John Simmons), MCZ (José Rosado), MNHN (Salvador Boilon, Roger Bour, Cristine Lefèvre), MTD (Markus Auer, Uwe Fritz (MTD), NMB (Frank Tillack), NHMB (Loïc Costeur), NHMUK (Colin McCarthy), NMW (Richard Gemel, Silke Schweiger), OMNH (Jessa L. Watters), PCHP (Sibille Hart Pritchard, Peter C. H. Pritchard, Nathanael Stanek), RH (Ren Hirayama, Chisako Sakata), ROM (Kevin Seymore), SMF (Linda Mogk), TMM (Chris Sagebiel), UCMP (Pat Holroyd), UCMVZ, (Jimmy McGuire), UMMZ (Greg Schneider), USNM (Jeremy Jacobs, Addison Wynn), YPM (Gregory Watkins-Colwell), and ZSI (Supriya Nandy). We thank Jason Denlinger, James Gardiner, and Mark-Oliver Rödel for donating pictures to this project.

Funding Information:

The assembly of this dataset was supported a grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation to WGJ (SNF SNF 200021_207377).